Conventional inkjet printers typically include one or more printheads in which ink is stored. Such printheads have one or more ink reservoirs in fluid communication with nozzles through which ink exits the printhead toward a print medium. In many cases, the nozzles are located in one or more nozzle plates coupled to a body of the printhead. Each nozzle plate can be or include a chip having heat transducers that heat and vaporize the ink, thereby ejecting the ink from the nozzles.
In some conventional inkjet printheads, air bubbles in the ink can block at least a portion of ink flow through the printhead, and in some cases can cause sufficient flow restriction to deprime at least some of the printhead nozzles. In some conventional inkjet printheads, ink flows along a fluid path extending from an ink reservoir and through a filter tower, an ink via, and a short feed tube feeding ink to the nozzles. In such printheads, the short feed tube is typically completely open to the ink via and has no features inhibiting bubble blockage of the fluid path. In other conventional inkjet printheads, the fluid path extends from an ink reservoir and through a filter tower, an ink via, and a narrow feed tube that is not completely open to the ink via. Bubbles can accumulate in the narrow feed tubes to cause depriming.